MORGAN. — THE PREFACE OF VITRUVIUS. 157 



particular force beyond the natural logic of the Latin language to be 

 attached to the perfect tenses of scripta and explicate,, Vitruvius may 

 refer merely to his preliminary collections and studies, and perhaps 

 especially to what he elsewhere sometimes calls commentarii, — the 

 notes and abstracts made by himself and other architects in the course 

 of their professional studies: cf. 3, 17, litteras architectum scire oportet 

 uti commentariis memoriam firmiorem efficere possit; 132, 27, philologis 

 et philotechnis rebus commentariorumque scripturis me deletions. With 

 regard to magnis cogitationibus, Ussing and Mortet 19 are troubled 

 because they take magnis in the sense of "grand" or "lofty," and 

 feel that Vitruvius would be presumptuous in applying much the same 

 language to his own thoughts and to those of Augustus (cf . amplissimis 

 tuis cogitationibus just above). Mortet therefore proposes to take 

 magnis cogitationibus with edere in the same construction (presum- 

 ably dative) as tantis occupationibus, and he translates as follows: 

 " Je n'osais pas mettre au jour pour vous mes ecrits sur l'architecture 

 a cause de vos si grandes occupations, ni vous soumettre mes com- 

 mentaires sur cet art, alors que vous avez de grands soucis de gouv- 

 ernement." But strange as Vitruvius may often be in his methods of 

 expressing himself, I know of no other passage in his whole work 

 that is so distorted in arrangement as this one would be if we accept 

 the explanation of Mortet, who indeed does not pretend to have found 

 any parallel for it. His other explanation, that perhaps et before 

 magnis means "even," is not happier nor is either explanation 

 necessary. 



10. publicae ret constitutione : "the establishment of public order"; 

 cf. Cic. Marc. 27, hie restat actus, in hoc elaborandum est, ut rem 

 public am const ituas. 



11. de opportunitate publicorum aedificiorum: "public buildings 

 intended for utilitarian purposes." Here opportunitate must be in- 

 terpreted by Vitruvius's own definition of the word in 15, 9 ff : publi- 

 corum autem distributiones sunt tres, e quibus est una defensionis, altera 

 religionis, tertia opportunitatis. . . . Opportunitatis communium lo- 

 corum ad usum publicum dispositio, uti portus fora porticus balineae 

 theatra inambulationes ceteraque quae isdem rationibus in publicis 

 locis designantur, that is: "there are three classes of public buildings, 



Woch., 27, 1372 (1907). Sontheimer (see above, note 1) revives it in a some- 

 what different form, holding that the work was ready in 32 b. c, but that 

 publication was delayed until some time between August of the year 29 and 

 January of the year 27, when it was published with the addition of the pref- 

 aces to the various books, but without any other additions. 

 19 Rev. Arch., 41, 46 (1902). 



